The discovery of new materials with novel chemical and physical properties often leads to the development of new and useful technologies. The discovery of new materials depends largely on the ability to synthesize and analyze new compounds. Scientists are thus, always searching for a more efficient, economical, and systematic approach for the synthesis of novel materials. Combinatorial technologies are often used to accelerate the speed of research, maximize the opportunity for breakthroughs, and expand the amount of available information. Combinatorial chemistry involves synthesizing microscale quantities of a compound and then testing thousands of compounds quickly.
The use of combinatorial technologies allows high density libraries of very large numbers of materials to be created using parallel synthesis. High throughput screens are then used to test these materials for desired properties to identify potential optimized compounds. Combinatorial technologies may be used to optimize and validate many variations of a material, formulation, or microdevice. Variables such as temperature, pressure, atmosphere, and concentration can be quickly adjusted and tested in a single experiment.
In parallel synthesis, different compounds are synthesized in separate vessels, often in an automated fashion. A commonly used format for parallel synthesis is a multi-well microtiter plate. Robotic instrumentation can be used to add different reagents or catalysts to individual wells of a microtiter plate in a predefined manner to produce combinatorial libraries. Devices have been developed for automating combinatorial parallel synthesis. One such device includes reaction blocks containing multiple reaction vessels each individually sealed. These devices often require substantial sealing arrangements and do not provide means for pressurizing the individual vessels. Other devices supply an inert gas to a plurality of reactor vessels, however, the gas is only supplied at one or two psi above atmospheric pressure to control the environment during the reaction. These devices are not designed to withstand high pressure operation.